Pun Detectives and the Case of the Missing Music! (Part 22)

“It was sun stroke?” I said, shocked that it was sun stroke.

“It was sun stroke,” Ms. Lax confirmed, sounding just as shocked as I was that it was sun stroke.

“Well, it sure looks that way anyway,” she continued. As usual, I was talking to her gloved hand as it poked out from behind a thick white curtain. The curtain partitioned me from her and Lily, to whom she was tending on one of the infirmary beds. If Lily were conscious, she would’ve been able to get a good glimpse of Ms. Lax. I wondered how many times I had been in the same exact position as Lily but had just never seen what Ms. Lax looked like cause I was passed out. Probably about a dozen, I tallied. Like it or not, and I most certainly didn’t, I was a regular resident here in the nurse’s office.

This time though, I wasn’t here for me. I had rushed Lily here as fast as I could from the pool. When she fainted, all I could think was that somehow I had infected her with some kind of cranked-up, maxed-out instance of my syncope problem. It was a stupid thought, but I thought it all the same.

Of course, that wasn’t the case. It was just sunstroke. Overheating in other words. And a minor case too, at least if what Ms. Lax said was anything to go by.

Personally, I wasn’t in much better shape than Lily. By the time I lugged her all the way here, my knees felt just about ready to give out, and Ms. Lax patched them up as well as she could. The scraping was pretty bad, but would heal soon and hardly even hurt after Ms. Lax was done with it.

“Hey Ms. Lax? Can robots even get sun stroke?” I wondered out loud while pinching one of the adhesive bandages that clung to my knee.

“Call me Ms. Laura.” Ms. Lax sighed. “That’s a good question. I’m not sure. All I can tell is that she’s exhibiting all the signs of sun stroke regardless. Did she expose herself to heavy heat and sunlight for long periods today?”

Rain beat against the windows. The sun had only come out for about an hour before the rain clouds rolled back in, thick and heavy like gray wool. By the time I got to the nurse's office, the downpour had returned in full force, and was showing no signs of letting up soon.

“No.” She chuckled before I could answer. “I guess not.”

“Well, either way, she’s definitely exhibiting all the symptoms of hyperthermia. Ah, sun or heat stroke, that is. But not to worry. She’s already cooling down, and fast.”

Suddenly, the popsicles made sense. If this was how she got when she overheated, no wonder they were her constant go-to. Being a robot had its perks — the insane strength was nice, I guessed — but it sure wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. I’d take human any day.

“Oh!” An idea popped into my head all of a sudden.

“What?”

“That app.”

“What app?”

“The one with the sun.”

“Sun?”

“Yeah. The sun.”

That had to be it. That had to be where this all started.

Ms. Lax paused for a second. Then, for some reason, she laughed. “You know, Wallace, I don’t think I will ever understand what you’re talking about half the time.”

I left Lily in Ms. Lax’s care that weekend.

#

Three quick bashes from a fire extinguisher. After all that trouble, that was all it took to get the locks off of Vance’s other lockers. Sure enough, the violins were inside. Vance would have to get new locks, but that wasn’t my problem. The way I saw it, a little monetary setback served him right after what he did.

I paused. All alone in the afterschool locker room, I thought long and hard about what to do about Vance. Eventually, I came to a decision. Once Monday rolled around, I would tell Mr. Treble and, though my desire to do so was lower than absolute zero, grandpa. I’d let them figure things out from here. Just like before, I had no say when it came to disciplinary action. I assumed some form of suspension was in order, but what did I know? Whatever happened from here on out, I had no control over it whatsoever. As far as I was concerned, that was a good thing.

Of course, that also meant I would have to pay whatever price came along with the property damage we’d caused to the school — not to mention the damage Lily had probably caused to grandpa’s fragile ego when she crashed through the oversized image of his face to save me. Grandpa probably wasn’t going to like hearing about that. Hopefully he’d just take it out of my RED budget.

With that decided, I headed home, violins safely in my possession. I would return them first thing on Monday. For now, I figured I might as well treat myself. Pattering into the kitchen in bare feet, I opened the freezer and grabbed a popsicle — Lily’s favorite kind. I had gotten kind of hooked on these things lately.

That was Friday night. I fell asleep with the lights on.

The end of Pun Detectives and the Case of the Missing Music!
To be continued in Pun Detectives and the Gift of the Magi!